


Where Hell Reigns, There's Hope

by Prestodeath201



Series: Stories of Survival [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Banter, Blood and Gore, College Students - Early 20's, F/F, Gen, More Realism, My First Work, POV First Person, Slightly Badasses, Teasing, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-01-31 18:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21450511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prestodeath201/pseuds/Prestodeath201
Summary: My name is Hope, and this is the story of how I survived (And am still surviving) what some would call hell itself.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: Stories of Survival [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546351
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	1. The Beginning of the 'End'

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how I did this, but I did.  
So here I am, sitting at my desk working on a paper when I suddenly get (mentally) bitch-slapped with a decent plot idea.  
I opened a new document and just started typing like a madman.  
I eventually look at what I have created and (with the opinions of my friends and other people) decided I should post it here.  
Enjoy it, I'm making chapter 2 for the friends that wanted more, but if you guys like this too I'll post it here.  
I should mention I have left anonymous commenting enabled, so comment away!

(Preface: Welcome to Hell)

Great, another subject, like I don't have enough on my hands. Tough cookie from what I hear, but, that's my job in this godforsaken world we live in now. I take the new civilians that come in (or are brought here) and get them to cooperate. Make them feel nice and comfy, get to know them. My specialty is coaxing people out of their camp or group's whereabouts so we can raise the population, get more workforce. I entered the room, laptop and a microphone in my hands, and sat down in the chair I had put in the corner yesterday. I took one good look and knew that they weren't kidding. She looked like she'd been through more than most, but still managed to look pretty as could be. Medium-length blonde hair, white but a little tanned, blue eyes that looked kind but could kill you with one glance. The one thing that I noticed though was that she was not only dressed in the compound's uniform, but she wore a black leather jacket with an old looking patch. I couldn't make out the patch, but I can tell it had been sewn back on several times. I waited for a moment before I tried talking to her.

_"Hello, Hope. I'm your new introductory agent, Dr. Nash, and I'll be making sure you feel at home here in the compound. I-"_

_"Alright, not to be rude, but let's skip the bullshit and get to the meat of things. What do you want me to do? Some experiment or something?"_

_"No, not yet at least. For a while, I'll be examining you and the information I collect will be used to pick a job that best suits you. But I'm going to start things off with something simple. How did you get here? You know, what's your story?"_

Hope looked at me with a slight smirk and said, _ “Alright, let me get this straight. You wanna hear MY story out of everyone here? You know what, I got nothing better to do, so I'll play along. I’m gonna start right from the beginning, just as it happened. So sit back and relax, motherfucker, it’s gonna be a long one.”_

_"I'm prepared to wait."_

** _Day 1 – 3:30 PM_ ** ** **

Tempest, my roommate and good friend, was half-sitting, half-laying on the couch watching one of her TV shows (which I could have cared less about). An emergency broadcast began playing on the TV saying the same thing I hear in pretty much every Z-Apoc movie. _ “Stay inside, lock your doors and close your curtains. Do not let anyone inside your home, no matter who is out there. There are a large populous of people that are now spreading a disease of unknown origin. Look out for these symptoms if you come into contact with someone: Headache, Nausea, Dizziness, Fever, Discoloration, what can be described as an extremely fast case of Dementia and Vomiting. If said person is vomiting blood, get away from them as quickly as possible, as this is the last stage of the disease before the subject goes rabid. If you come into contact with anyone showing symptoms, put as much distance as you can between you and th-” _

Sorry, I tuned out like 2 minutes ago.

As soon as I heard ‘disease of unknown origin’ I began going down my checklist. I’ve been a zombie fanatic ever since I heard about zombies, but it almost turned into an obsession when I got Max Brook's 'Zombie Survival Guide’. I started filling every container I could get my hands on with water, save for a couple in case we needed it. I would rather take the precautions than just brush it off as nothing. I called Tempest to help me start stockpiling stuff, and when I didn't get a response, I looked out front. The car was gone, as I was hoping it wasn't. Great. Just fucking perfect.

I texted her, and hoped to whatever god there was that she brought her phone with her.

HopingforBOOTY : Where the fuck are you?! 

HelluvaStorm: I went to go get luna calm the fuck down 

Thank fuck, she did bring her phone. Figures that she went to go get Luna. Luna is Tempest’s girlfriend, and a total biking junkie. (Lemme give you an idea of these two, doc. Luna's a lanky blonde with medium-length hair that wears round glasses, and always wears a dark t-shirt and jeans. Kind girl who generally prefers brains over brawn, and especially when it comes to Tempest, very forward with her intentions. I always thought she could get into parkour, but she said she didn’t have the time to _ really _get into it with her archery in the mix. Yeah, archery. And Tempest? Short, slightly chubby brunette who's carefree and out there. Never fails to throw reason out the window and go berserk when she gets pissed. It's because of it that I honestly can't tell whether Tempest is her real name or a nickname she stuck with. Enough of that, let me get back to it.)

HopingforBOOTY : Without me? Seriously? 

HelluvaStorm: not exactly like you care im just picking her up 

HopingforBOOTY : I kinda DO care, plus if she's staying with us, then we gotta bring anything useful she has here. More people = more food 

HelluvaStorm: you might be jumping to the whole zombie thing too fast

HopingforBOOTY: You can never be too careful with this kinda thing.

HelluvaStorm: fine i'll help her pack up whatever I can into the car before it gets too chaotic out here 

HopingforBOOTY : You got 30 mins, then I’m coming to get you myself. On my bike. 

HelluvaStorm: the less you text me the less work I can get done so stfu and do your thing 

She has a point there.

HopingforBOOTY : Alright fine, just get back here with anything useful there. The more, the better. Oh, and any bartering items too. Stuff like booze, ciggies, sugar, shit like that. You know. Just in case. 

HelluvaStorm: ive heard your rambling plenty of times to know about bartering items now go

Ok, at least she isn’t ditching me. Not that I thought she would, but this does sound like the zombie apocalypse to me. I stockpiled everything into the living room instead, realizing there wasn’t a whole lot of room upstairs anyways. We had a pretty decent amount of stuff. That is, for college students. Water situation was good and we had enough perishable foods for about 2 to 3 days and enough non-perishable stuff for a week and a half. I closed all the curtains and while doing so, I noticed just how crazy it was getting on the distant street. Cars zooming by at speeds that would turn you into cream, driver or victim. I didn’t see a single police officer anywhere, no help at all. My assumption is they went to their families or just left the city as soon as shit hit the fan. I saw a few people running by with backpacks, seeing if they could ‘grab some things and go’ and other people running by with TV's and game systems, probably thinking that this won’t last long at all. I almost wish I was that stupid and innocent to not know just how bad this is, because to be honest I was pretty scared. I ignored it and went over what we had.

I had just about finished cataloging everything when Tempest and Luna walked in. Tempest immediately brought me a box and said, _ “There’s a little more where that came from. We decided to make a quick pit stop, it was chaotic.” _ I looked inside the box, and was met with an entire box of canned goods and where the hell they got it I’ll never kn- wait. No. That _ logo _... 

_ “It was a total shit show, but totally worth it.” _

_ “Cashco? I don’t know how the hell you aren’t trampled dead, that’s where pretty much everyone wants to bunker down in case of emergency.” _

_ “Do I give a fuck?” _

_ “Obviously not for your own life, no.” _

_ “Well, we got like 2 boxes and got the hell outta dodge. Would’ve nabbed a cart for fun, but we wouldn’t have been able to. The car's too small.” _

_ “Fun? Jesus, did you at least ‘nab’ anything to block up the windows? We have curtains, and that’s about it.” _

_ “Wouldn’t putting boards or something on the windows give away that people are here?” _

_ “Actually, yeah. Scratch that. What did you have at your place, Luna?” _

Luna replied, _ “Well, hello to you too. Tempest said the most useful thing I had was either my bow or my bike tools.” _

I thought about it for a second, and then asked Tempest, _ “Do I ramble about this kinda stuff to you THAT much?” _

Tempest gave me a big nod and wide eyes.

_ “Fair enough. What else did you get from Luna's place?” _

_ “A bit. Like, enough to help, but not much more. Some of its pretty handy though.” _

_ “Alright, lets bring it in, I’ll have to catalog all that too.” _

We started bringing in everything bit by bit, and I got a peek at some of the stuff that wasn’t packed into a bag or a box. Some of it was really good stuff, some of it was just personal effects and nic-nacs. All-in-all, pretty good additions. So I cataloged it along with the stuff I already had.

But I knew with our location and space we had here, we wouldn’t be able to stay. 

_ “Alright, this is good. But we only have 2 bikes, and way too much stuff to carry normally. Any ideas?” _

Luna spoke up and said, _ “If people are still as dumb as I think they are, then getting a bike shouldn't be a big problem. The bike shop I go to isn’t far at all, and I could grab a couple parts at a time. You said you had one already?” _

_ “Yep. Over there, just inside the closet.” _

Luna went to go look at it while Tempest and I went upstairs to my computer, Tempest asked, 

_ “I find it hilarious that even in this kinda situation, you type perfectly.” _

_ “Give auto-correct some credit, but I’m just a grammar Nazi when it comes to typing.” _

_ “What exactly are you gonna look up, anyways?” _

_ “I’m not just gonna look it up, I’m gonna print it out. I should’ve done this a loooong time ago.” _

_ “Ok, but _ ** _what _ ** _ are you gonna print out?” _

_ “Stuff like instructions on how to sew, make traps, and really any other useful information. And print out some maps. Those are important.” _

_ “Makes sense, but do you have any idea just where the hell we’re gonna go?” _

_ “Nope. Unless ‘out of the city’ counts.” _

_ “Can’t argue with you there.” _

After a bit of me reading a bunch of stuff and printing what I deemed would be handy, Tempest got bored and went down to ask Luna about my bike. I caught just about every word. 

_ “So, how’s her bike looking?” _

_ “Good, but not as good as you.” _

_ “Alright you tease, you got me. But for real, how is it?” _

_ “Like I said, good. I could fit it out with better parts though. If we are going to go off-road, I’ll have to fit all 3 of our bikes with hybrid tires. And, I don’t know it for sure, if they have trailers in the area where I got my basket, then we could carry a good chunk of our stuff on us and our bikes alone.” _

_ “How fast will we be able to go though? I mean, we don’t bike as much as you do plus all the stuff we might end up towing with us will be heavy.” _

_ “It’s the start that will be the slow part. After we build some speed, we’d be going at least 20 miles per hour.” _

_ “That’s not just your speed, is it?” _

_ “I can go 25 miles per hour. _ (Tempest makes a face that says, ‘bullshit’) _ Hey, what can I say? I might be a bit lazy, but I’m quick.” _

They both laughed at that. Even I chuckled a little. I had some planning to do though, and I didn’t know much about how it was out there. Besides, we weren’t even ready to leave yet, we had some preparation ahead of us. I looked out my window to see everything was about the same, and I headed back downstairs to let them know what we were gonna do next. 

_ “Ok, it’s still kinda chaotic out there last I checked, so I say we wait a few days to let things calm down.” _

Tempest replied, _ “Good thinking and all, but by then this place will either be full of zombies or looted and deserted.” _

Luna chimed in, _ “Both of you have valid points, so how about we compromise and just wait till tomorrow?” _

Tempest agreed to it, and so did I. We had a rather calm night, hearing occasional screams, pops and crashes. We tried to have one more normal night and watch a movie on low volume with the door blocked up and as many lights as possible turned off. I had my revolver at my side, loaded, the whole time. It was a sort of unpleasant reminder of what was really out there right then. I still enjoyed myself nonetheless, the movie was one of those muscle-action movies like _The Expendables_, explosions, gunfights, and overly-buff dudes. We all went to bed on a full stomach, mind filled with cheesy dialogue and slight chuckles from all 3 of us.

** _Day 2 – 8:00 AM_**

I know I should’ve slept longer, but I don’t wanna waste daylight. I went and got the two lovebirds outta Tempest’s bed, and (after letting Tempest know that she was still topless) reminded them that everything was still very real. Once everyone had awakened and had some food and drink, we all looked out the window to see a few zombies shuffling around the street. Not too many, about 4 zombies and a rather calm area, ditched vehicles aplenty and bloody corpses here and there.

With a slight slur, Tempest said, _ “Huh. The movies always made it look like chaos.” _

I replied with, _ “We aren’t in a movie, as much as you might like the idea.” _

_ “Well, now that the day has started and things have had a chance to calm, are we gonna go to that bike shop or what? _

_ “Sure, but what are we gonna carry all the bike parts in?” _

_ “We aren’t.” _

Tempest and I turned around to see Luna at the table, looking at the maps I printed out. 

_ “I always biked there, so it didn’t seem like much of a distance. Now that I see it on the map, we’re gonna have to build the bikes there, and ride them back.” _

Tempest looked back out the window, saying, _ “Great. Nothing like urban camping to make a day go by.” _

_ “Hey, it’ll give us a chance to test them and get a feel for what’s comfortable and what needs adjusting before we load them up with our stuff, right?” _

_ “True that. I don’t wanna ride a bike if its gonna bruise my ass.” _

_ "I'm surprised that it isn't already after our little sleepover last night." _

Tempest went bright red and told Luna to 'shut up and keep talking'.

_ “We can load up the trailers with whatever else we might find out there. Don’t wanna go home with just our rides if we don’t have to.” _

I interrupted them, saying, _ “Look, this is all good stuff to consider, but right now, we don’t even know if we’ll be able to get in quietly. Or if we even have a clear path to get there.” _

Tempest agreed, saying, _ “Dammit, I hate to say it. But you’re right, we're a bit too far ahead.” _

_ “We? I’m pretty sure I was the one with the good ideas here.” _ Luna said, rather annoyed by Tempest taking even _ partial _credit. 

Tempest laughed, and we started preparing to go out for the first time, taking what we thought we would need for our little expedition. Once we got fitted up with our packs, big and small, we opened the door to the best thing I had felt in the past two days. 

Fresh. Air.

Once Luna had gotten her bike out the door, I turned around and locked the door. We cautiously moved forward, looking out for any zombies in our way. Not one of us made a single sound, not knowing how real-life zombies function. We moved along the sidewalk slowly and over time picked up our pace. The zombies we had seen earlier must have wandered off, as they were nowhere to be seen. Luna led the way, knowing the way to the bike shop like it was second nature. Tempest whispered to me that she was pretty sure Luna could do it blindfolded. After walking for about 5 minutes, we spotted one of the zombies. Because it was only one, we decided to kind of experiment with it. (Stupid, I know, but I’m sitting in front of you, aren’t I?) At first we played with noise and distracting them. I picked up a small rock and tossed it at a wall behind it. Thank god, it turned around and it was blind to us. I found another one, and threw it farther away from the zombie. It looked over like it heard it, but didn’t go near it. I tried to approach it, since its back was turned to me, and it didn’t move or acknowledge my existence whatsoever. I stomped, enough to make a little noise. It turned around and started moving towards me at a slow pace, but it got faster very quickly. It was moving at a slow jogging speed, and it was terrifying. I don’t know why, but I thought it was a good idea to try and push it a little. I ended up trying to shove it, and move away at the same time, and what happened was rather convenient. I had used the speed it built to throw it to the ground on its stupid face. As it started to get up, Tempest came over and stomped the poor bastard to a pulp. Her shoe was now bloody and had a piece of skull wedged into the side of the sole and she was complaining about how it kinda hurt her foot, and how it was squishy after the sickening crunch we all heard. After we got over being a bit sick, we knew a little more about how they moved and how they detected us, we kept going. We ended up encountering about 2 more on the way, and we started getting close to the bike shop when we came across a large strip-mall that looked like it had seen the worst riot in history. Some of the concrete was charred, almost every single window was smashed, and there were a few cars that looked heavily vandalized. We didn’t dare get closer, but the sight of it was somehow depressing. We eventually came to the bike shop, which was mostly undisturbed except for a single nearly-broken window. It had bars on it, so it was either accidental or some idiot thought he could fit through them. It was locked, as expected. Luna dug out her tool kit, and taking the socket wrench, removed the bars from the window. After she climbed through the window and unlocked the door, we blocked the windows with the wheeled display shelves and locked the door. 

_ “Here we are, the promised land of wheels!” _ Tempest exclaimed. 

Luna joined in with a face that looked like she was having a wet dream. 

_ “I always dreamed of going on a splurge. I mean, my bike is nice, but the parts in here are worth more than diamonds to me.” _

I added, _ “It sounds a lot more fun to me at a computer shop or sporting goods store. But Luna?” _

Still in awe, she replied, _ “Yeah?” _

_ “Go. Nuts.” _

Leila didn’t have to be told twice. She went to the back to see the equipment she would be using, and then with pure joy on her face began browsing the shelves. I however, went to the section where the baskets were kept to see what kind of trailers they had. They had the metal baskets, kiddie trailers, but no special bag trailers. 

_ “Lunaaaa! You lied! There are no trailers!” _

Leila called out from another aisle, “I didn’t lie! There are those big ol’ kiddie trailers! We can just put out stuff in those!” 

I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted that bag trailer so badly, and it could carry a good bit of our supplies without much compromise. 

_ “Not gonna cut it. Where can you get one of those special bag-trailer-things?” _

_ “First place that comes to mind is the sporting goods shop! Probably the best chance you've got if you're gonna find one like that.” _

_ “To the sporting goods shop next, then. I would rather make the trip there and carry some spare bike parts or whatever than skip out on one of those trailers. You know one that might have them?” _

_ “Yeah. Tempest, check the maps, how far away is that over-expensive-bitchy-white-boy-sporting goods store?” _

I replied rather hotly, _ “You don't mean the CEI down the road, do you?” _

_ “Yep. That’s the one.” _

I was still annoyed at the comment, because while it may be expensive, it’s a good store. I will defend it.

_ “While we’re there, we can get some spare equipment you guys might be missing. Because they _ ** _have good shit there._**_"_

_ “Ok, ok. Calm down, it’s not like someone in your family owns the place.” _

I let it slide, and sat down with Tempest while Luna was doing her thing. A random question entered my mind, and I was compelled to ask. 

_ “I know we’re all acting pretty calm, but I’m not the only one freaked out about all this zombie bullshit, right?” _

_ “Not at all. I’m pretty freaked out and so is Luna. I’m pretty sure the only people who aren’t freaking out about this are the dead ones.” _

_ “Yeah. How many do you think are dead so far?” _

_ “I don’t know, but I know my dad isn’t dead. It would take 100 of those bastards at once to take someone like him down.” _

Tempest and I laughed at that for a bit before Tempest snapped into reality with a look of realization. 

_ “OH SHIT, MY PARENTS!” _

Tempest immediately pulled out her phone and turned it on. She looked at her log and saw 23 missed calls from her parents. She called them up, and after the start of the third ring, they answered. (I may have eavesdropped on the conversation, but hey. I was bored.) 

_ “Hello? Tempest, are you there?” _

_ “Yeah, dad it’s me! I’m with 2 of my friends right now and we’re totally fine. Actually, more than fine. We’re doing great.” _

_ “Uh... you _ ** _do _ ** _ know whats going on, right?” _

_ “The freaky-ass zombies, I know. We’re in one of the affected areas.” _

_ “Oh god, how deep?! I’ll come and get you, just tell me whe-” _

_ “DAD! Calm the hell down, we aren’t too deep into the area.” _

_ “Ok, ok... can you make out it to our land?” _

_ “Uh...” _

Tempest looked really nervous at that question. 

_ “Do you know how far we are, dad? I mean, is there somewhere closer we can meet?” _

_ “I suppose so, but we won’t have phones to talk with forever.” _

Tempest’s dad thought about it for a second and then said: 

_ “Yeah, you remember the vacation we took 2 years ago?” _

_ “Wait, you don’t mean the vacation house we rented in the forest, do you?!” _

_ “That’s the one. It’s closer to you, and we can drive there on a set date to meet you.” _

_ “Ok, but what if we don’t make it on said date?” _

_ “We will drive out there every week after until we meet you there.” _

_ “Ok, but what about you? What are you gonna do?” _

_ “You mean, what have I been doing. Calling all of our folk to come to the land, we’re gonna build a wall and try to setup a homestead here. I also raided the police station armory and break room, idiots were too busy trying to get the hell out of town. I went to the liquor store afterwards, but it turns out everyone got to it first.” _

_ “Sounds like something you would do.” _

_ “That’s my girl. Now, seeing how far you are from the meet-up point, I say we start checking it after 2 months? That sound right?” _

2 months?! Where the hell was this ‘meet-up’ point? 

_ “I would say so.” _

_ “Alright then, call me every other day you’re still kicking. Love ya, pumpkin.” _

Tempest snickered and said: 

_ “Love you too dad. Tell mom I love her too.” _

_ “I will, buh-bye!” _

_ “Bye.” _

Tempest hung up the phone and turned it off again, she then turned to me and said: 

_ “We’re going north. It’s gonna be safe there.” _

_ “Just how far north?” _

_ “Austin, Texas to Fonzo, West Virginia. You do the math.” _

Out of pure curiosity, I checked it on my own phone. ** _1,320.1 miles away. _ **

_ “Are you fucking serious? _ ** _THAT _ ** _ far?! How the hell do you expect to get there without a car?!” _

Luna called from the back of the shop, _ “I’m making you two idiots the best bikes in existence, how do you think we get there?! Actually, where are we going?"_

I called back to Luna the distance and location, and she simply said, _ “Oh shit, I hope you two didn’t skip leg day.” _

Tempest then told me flatly, _ “You wanted somewhere to go other than ‘out of the city’, you got it. At least we got an idea of where we’re going now.” _

_ “Alright, but your parents land better be the _ _ promised _ _ land.” _

_ “How did you know it was la-” _

_ “No reason whatsoever.” _

_ “Well... that’s only a meet-up point. My parents live in Michigan, on the mitten. I forget the name of the little town, but I know how to get there.”_

We sat in silence for a few minutes when Luna yelled at us to come to the back. 

_ “Voila! Feast your eyes on these beauties!” _

Tempest and I both looked at the bikes, which looked really nice, but we both didn’t have much of an idea as to what was so great about it.

_ “Well? What do think?” _

Tempest said it for the both of us, thank fuck. 

_ “Ok, they look cool, but what’s so amazing about them?” _

Luna stared at us with the biggest ‘Are you fucking serious’ look.

_ “If I’m not allowed to explain it to you, just hand me your revolver and one bullet. Please.” _

I made a motion to go on, and her eyes lit up real quick. 

_ “Ok. I got these things fitted out with really good suspension, so bumpy roads or small drops aren’t a problem to us.” _

Dope. 

_ “The tires are really nice, because they’re penetration-resistant and are a hybrid of road tires and mountain tires. So on or off-road isn’t gonna slow us down much at all. Also, all three of these things are now 10-speed bicycles instead of just your singular set fast-as-you-pedal speed.” _

Also dope. 

_ “These frames are light-weight and tough as nails, and these handlebars are comfy. I also put bigger baskets on our bikes, but they’re only as wide as the handlebars, so if your handle bars fit, the whole bike does.” _

Doooope. 

_ “And last but not least, because Tempest is thicc beyond measure, I have all 3 fitted with big comfy seats.” _

Tempest and I laughed like crazy at that, but Luna didn’t look like she was kidding. We all sat down and talked for a bit before gathering our stuff and getting on our new bikes. Luna looked like a kid who had gotten 3 Christmases in a row. 

_ “Ok, we’re going to that sporting goods store, right? That should be enough distance for you two to test out these bad boys, and don’t be afraid of riding like a mad woman. Trust me.” _

I think Luna _wants _to see us truly put these things to the test, but I told her, 

_ “These bikes can prove their worth in due time. For now, I just wanna get there and see what’s left. I’m pretty sure that the looters with a little more brains than others went to a place like REI. ” _

We had already cleared away the shelves and peeked outside, and when we only saw 2 zombies way across the street, we figured it was safe to ride. We had the little space in our bags loaded up with tubes, patches, spare screws, a bike lock, and (for Tempest and I) a hand-picked bicycle tool set in the case that Luna lost hers (Which she wouldn’t, not on her life.). Before we left, Luna went behind the desk to look for (and found) a spare key to the place, locked up, and left the key in the door for those who needed it. We all got to riding and I admit, it was the smoothest bike I had ever ridden. The ride was calm, we didn’t pay attention to a whole lot minus the occasional zombie, as we were more focused on getting there before scrounging up any leftovers from the local shops. When we got there, it was hard to _ not see it _. The place was huge, and in a shopping strip with other places. As expected, the windows were either cracked or broken, so we prepared for the worst. 

_ “Excited or scared, Hope?” _

_ “Both.” _

Not going to lie, seeing as there were wide-open entrances, there were probably zombies inside. However, the place was 2-story and judging from what I’d seen, they probably didn’t climb things easily. I was hoping to load up the trailers with more bags or ways to carry our stuff, and a few other things were missing. I was going to have fun doing it, zombies or not. Problem was, we had to find the trailers first.

_ “Now this isn’t a normal sporting goods shop, it doesn’t have guns, it doesn’t have stuff for the common sports. It has stuff for hiking, biking, skiing and snowboarding, etc. So don’t get too excited. Let’s do this, girls!” _

We all put our bikes into the bike rack outside (to our extreme convenience) and started to go inside. I was first, revolver out, but Tempest looked annoyed and wanted me to give her the gun. 

_ “You aren’t holding it right! Here, at least let me show you how!” _

I handed Tempest my revolver, and she flicked out the cylinder, checked the ammunition, and flicked it back into the gun in _ one smooth movement _. She then checked the safety and pulled down the hammer with her thumb. She held it like a professional, apocalypse or not. She looked back at Leila and I, whose jaws were dropped. 

_ “What? When you live in Middle Of Nowhere, Michigan, guns will be shot for fun. Not a stereotype, but very common in a lot more places than you’d think.” _

_ “You never told me you were a gunslinger!” _Luna said, with a tinge of sadness in her voice. 

_ “I am in no way a gunslinger. Calm your tits.” _

_ “They are calm, that was just super cool.” _

I chuckled at their mini-banter and Tempest lead this time, heading inside slowly. She didn't look like a police officer, but I can tell she was trying to mimic it.

I was trying to be quiet, but I was the only one who actually knew their way around. Didn’t mean I knew where _ everything _was, but most of it. 

_ “Ok, we’re gonna go straight back there and make a left. Pretty sure that’s the biking area.” _

_ “Alright, but what if we just cleared the place first? We wouldn’t have to be quiet anymore if there are no zombies. Or people, for that matter.” _

_ “Fine, but that gun is an emergency back up only.” _

_ “Deal.” _

We moved a little faster through the building, checking every area (including the Biking section, we found it.) with extreme caution. We ended up finding nothing on the second floor and only 2 zombies on the first floor, and moved to kill them. 

_ “Just be careful, melee only. I’m looking at you, Tempest.” _I whispered. 

They hadn’t seen us yet, and I didn’t plan on being seen. I had my machete and Luna and Tempest were teaming up on one of them with kayak paddles. I signaled for them to go for it, so we shoved them to the ground when they didn’t expect it. After I had driven my Machete through the back of its skull and watched Tempest and Luna beat the other to a pulp, we finished clearing the place, and went to the biking section. Leila face-palmed 30 seconds after she started looking around. 

_ “You know, I may have built 2 badass bikes _ (She merely upgraded her old one.) _ but I didn’t accessorize them almost at all.” _

_ “Well, get to it if you think it’s necessary. We’re gonna be here for a bit.” _

_ “No, I’ll do it once we find and attach the trailers.” _

We all looked around, and noticed that quite a few bicycles were stolen along with accessories aplenty. After about 20 minutes of browsing and being revolted by some of the prices, Tempest called to us. 

_ “Found them! These things look pretty neat!” _

She did indeed find them. They didn’t look to be touched by anyone. I told them what we were gonna do, as I seemed to be the unofficial leader. 

_ “Alright, now that I know exactly what we’re working with, I know how I’m gonna pack them. Luna, bring in the bikes and fit the trailers up. Tempest, stay here and protect Luna. This place is big, and we can’t watch all entrances.” _

_ “Sounds good to me. You sure you don’t wanna wait for us to go with you?” _

_ “I’ll be fine. I can load it up myself, most of it isn’t gonna be super heavy.” _

_ “Alright. We’ll yell for you when she’s done.” _

Luna confirmed, saying, _ “I’ve already done one of them. Look.” _

It looked pretty cool and I could fit a good bit in there in an organized manner. 

_ “Alright, I’m gonna go get some stuff. Be back in a bit.” _

I went off the to Hiking section, but as I passed the Fitness section of the store, I noticed some duffel bags. They would fit perfectly on the sides of the trailers, and could be grabbed easily. I took 6 of them, they were ** _60L _ ** duffel bags! I thought the really big duffel bags were for military, but there I was, holding 360L worth of space in my two hands (I rolled them up until I could load them.). My inner outdoors-girl was screaming for joy. I walked to the Hiking section and got to the gear all across the displays and was melting. Luna probably felt this at the bike shop, and man oh man, it was glorious. I went to the backpacks, expecting there to be something left (probably a 40L pack) and found 2 90L packs and 6 80L packs along with the much smaller ones, which were plentiful. I grabbed one of the 90L and put it on, getting a basic feel for it, and it was comfy. I took it off and started loading my pack with things I didn’t have in my bag, some of the stuff I grabbed were upgrades to my old stuff. We would organize it all later, but for now I was grabbing 4 of the same item as soon as I knew it would be the best for us. I was about to go to the GPS’ when I felt something **grab me. **

_ “Don’t move a muscle, don’t make a sound, and maybe I won’t kill you.” _

I had dropped the bag and had been dragged into a corner very quickly. He wasted his breath telling me not to move because I couldn’t move anyways, I was in a death grip. His hand was over my mouth so all I could do was sit there and wait for the chance to do something. 

_ “You’re a pretty one, ain’t ‘cha?” _

The bastard started putting his tongue in my ear, and I could do nothing but shake and shudder in anger and disgust. He had bad breath, and I had a bad habit of not listening to people. So when he started relaxing, thinking I had given up, I elbowed the fucker, stomped on his foot and scrambled away. He looked pissed, and I was too. I yelled for Tempest and kept running for my life. As soon as I turned the corner to where the Fitness section was, I heard 4 pops and a loud thump. As I tried to turn around, I tripped and fell. I scrambled to get up and look to see what had happened. 

Tempest was paralyzed_. _ The man was dead on the floor, motionless. Tempest was standing about 15 ft away, gun in hand. I went to her and thanked her over and over but she was still registering the fact that she had shot a man dead. Luna came over, and took Tempest to a wall to rest and comfort her. I however, knew that those pops were echoed through the building, but I didn’t know how loud it sounded _ outside _. I began to panic a little, told Luna to hurry up with the trailers/accessories and that we needed to go ASAP. I ran back to the Hiking section and with much less pleasure, grabbed everything we might need and stuffed it into bags. After I had finished loading them up, I went into the climbing section and grabbed a few coils of good rope. I walked as fast as I could with the weight, and got back to see a somewhat zoned-out Tempest and our bikes fitted with the trailers and gadgets. We were all quiet during the process, but we loaded the bags onto our trailers evenly and biked back carefully and quietly, disregarding any place we passed for scavenging. When we got back to the house, Tempest finally spoke. 

_ “I just killed someone. Didn’t think twice about it either.” _

Luna and I both came back with comments. 

_ “You did it to help and protect me, Tempest. Don’t dwell on it too much.” _

_ “Yeah, Tempest. It’s not like it was in cold blood. He was going to hurt Hope.” _

_ “Look, I’m sure with the way the country is going, there are going to be more people like him. As fucked as it sounds, we are _ ** _going _ ** _ to have to kill people.” _

_ “Yeah, that is pretty fucked, isn’t it?” _

Tempest spoke once more, _ “Luna, I’m going upstairs, please come with me. I need comfort and a distraction.” _

I said one last thing before they went up. 

_ “Luna, empty the gun and toss the bullets down here as soon as you can.” _

She nodded, and I looked back at the trailers, unhooked from the bike rigs. I had a lot of work ahead of me. 

** _Day 2 – 9:15 PM _ **

I had finished organizing and cataloging the new stuff we had gotten. I think we’re gonna leave in a couple days, we got a good stock of supplies and gear. I printed out more stuff before I hit the hay. It hadn’t been too bad yet, and we felt like we were on top of the world, minus Tempest having to shoot that asshole. I was really happy that we had a real place to go now, somewhere to wait out this nightmare come to life. Well, back from the dead, that is.


	2. The 3 Lesbians of the Apocalypse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My name is Hope, and this is the story of how I survived (And am still surviving) what some would call hell itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope I delivered. I would not have gotten this done without the support of my friends, so thanks to them for repeatedly asking where chapter 2 was and how it was going lol
> 
> Anyways, try and enjoy it, because I worked my ass off on it.
> 
> (Disclaimer) I am not a gun expert, what I wrote I had to do research on.

You looked at Hope and asked, _“So what did you do in the 2 days before you left?” _

Hope looked up at me and said, _ “Mostly just planned for the trip as much as we could. We all knew the car would get stuck just like the rest of them out on the roads, that’s why we prepped the bikes. We didn’t know just how bad it had gotten outside of our little area at the time, as most of the stuff playing on the television now were survival tips and locations of ‘safe havens’. Fucking military thinks they had it all under control by just stepping aside and letting people come to the bases, but they didn’t stop and think about the fact that they might not live to make it to the bases! I bet you know what happened, and just how dead wrong they were. No pun intended, of course.” _

I replied to Hope with a tinge of sadness in my voice, saying, "_I am well aware of what happened to some of the bases. They didn’t clear out infected, and by the time they had congregated into one of those ‘hordes’ it was too late. A tragedy, indeed.” _

_ “Anyways...." _

** _Day 5 - 10:00 AM_ **

We had all gotten our packs onto our backs and loaded the trailers. We managed not to leave a single thing behind, our packs and trailers full to the brim with equipment and supplies. I know we could have used a couple other things, but we enough and probably didn’t have to stop for awhile. After we all got out the door, Tempest and I both turned around and said goodbye to the place. Today, none of us were feeling good about leaving and going out into the unknown, without the comfort and luxuries of modern technology, braving what would soon turn to winter weather. Tempest finally broke the silence, as she didn’t like it a whole lot.  
  


_ “I never thought I would have to depend on a bike after I got my car. And yet, here I am.”  
  
_

_ “Shit happens, so we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It just so happens we got lucky with these dope ass bikes and someone to build them, otherwise we would be walking. Everyone ready?”  
  
_

Luna and Tempest both nodded, and Luna led the way, knowing the way to navigate through here easily. It was really calm, and we were moving quickly through the now mostly-abandoned area. We saw more zombies in the denser areas of the city, but we were going too fast and weren’t close enough for them to grab hold of us or our bikes. I didn’t like the general quiet, it was somewhat unsettling. After about 30 minutes, we decided to take a break for my sake and Tempest’s as we weren’t used to the bike rides anymore. Luna must have been reading my mind, because she took the words out of my mouth.  
  


_ “Doesn’t it seem strange that so few zombies are around? I mean, Austin is densely populated so you’d figure there would be a lot more, right?”  
  
_

_ “Right, so where do you think they all are?”  
  
_

Tempest put in her thoughts. _ “I don’t know, and I don’t care. As long as we don’t have to deal with them, I’m a-ok with it.”  
  
_

_ “Can’t argue with that. Let’s get moving, going through some of the city has slowed us down a lot.”  
  
_

Tempest then whined a little and said, _ “But my legs hurrrt…”  
  
_

Luna didn’t miss a beat, and with a smirk, said, _ “Should’ve biked with me more often, your thiccness.”  
  
_

She then bowed, and got an annoyed but amused look from Tempest.  
  


After having a little more water, we started riding again. We kept riding for 30 minute intervals and taking a break. We saw more zombies the closer to the center of the town we got, and talked about maybe going around as to have an easier ride. We decided to go around in the less crowded areas, as we weren’t looking for trouble. Just before we got into Temple, we spotted a local gun shop but to our luck, came across a makeshift roadblock. We were looking for an easier way around it, when a large man came limping out of the shop holding a shotgun.  
  


_ “Howdy there! Lookin’ to pass through?”  
  
_

He spoke with a thick southern accent (For someone on the outskirts of Austin, that is.) and his voice sounded deep and smooth. He looked like a city boy, despite talking and acting like he was from down home. I had no idea how he had gotten the road block built so quickly, as it wasn’t a small road. I whispered to Luna and Tempest to let me do the talking, and turned to face the man approaching us.  
  


_ “Indeed we are, sir. Why do you have the road blocked up?”  
  
_

_ “Well, because I am in no condition to get supplies myself, I created a sort of toll road here. It works quite well for this being the first day I’ve started running it.”  
  
_

I admit, this man was clever. But I didn’t like the idea of giving up too much of our stuff.  
  


_ “How much is this toll?”  
  
_

_ “Oh, just some food and water. I don’t ask for much, just enough to get by.”  
  
_

_ “I think we can spare a little.”  
  
_

_ “Great! You’re the first bunch to be this friendly, most of the time I have'ta shoulder mah shotgun here.”  
  
_

_ “Yeah, we’re not looking for any trouble and we have enough till we get somewhere to find some more.”  
  
_

I got off of my bicycle and dug out a couple bottles of water and a couple of canned goods. He looked very happy, and moved the ‘gate’ out of the way.  
  


_ “Oh, before ya leave, would you like to maybe do some trading o' some sort? I have weapons to spare and more than enough ammunition. You've been rather polite, despite the circumstances.”  
  
_

I looked at Luna and Tempest, who both nodded in agreement.  
  


_ “Sure, we could use the firepower.”  
  
_

_ “Oh, I got firepower alright. As long as you have things I need.”  
  
_

We parked our bikes on the side and unhooked the trailers to show to the man. He began looking at our things, and saw a few things he liked. I looked at our list and made sure the things he was eyeing were things we could give up. (Author’s Note: <https://pastebin.com/Luh8kiZ7> This is for the inventory nerds.)  
  


_ “I could do well with one of them camping stoves and some of the fuel... One of those mini solar panels would be real nice... One of those sleeping bags could do me good, too... Maybe your crank radio... And I s’pose any more food or water ye can spare.”  
  
_

_ “Well, what could we get if I gave you a sleeping bag?”  
  
_

_ “I would part with one of my shotguns over there and some shells for it, that one’s a-”  
  
_

Tempest interrupted him, saying,_ “Maverick 88, I’ve seen them before.”  
  
_

Matt paused and looked at Tempest, dumbfounded at the fact that a ‘city girl’ knew a gun before he could begin naming it.  
  


_ “It’s a nice gun.”  
  
_

_ “Well, ya know yer guns. I din’t expect that from any o' ya. Well uh, that, or maybe one of my deer rifles. Look around and take yer pick.”  
  
_

_ “I like the choices, but what about handguns? I don’t like the idea of carrying such a big gun, too heavy.” _Luna asked.

_  
_Luna doesn’t like to carry a lot of weight when she bikes. It tires her out faster when she stands up and pedals. Plus, I don’t think she could handle the recoil of a shotgun or a rifle, it might knock her on her ass.  
  


_ “Well, little lady. I do have some handguns in this here display, most o’ which I would say is worth that fresh bottle o' Jack.”  
  
_

Luna looked at her bow, and then looked at me somewhat expectantly, and I reluctantly nodded. I didn’t think the bartering items we had picked up would come in handy this quickly, but thank god we had it. Luna handed him the bottle, and after he checked to see if the seal was broken, let Luna take her pick between a few pistols. Luna chose a Kel-Tec PMR-30 (A strange and yet decent handgun) and he handed her the gun, holster, 3 magazines and 2 boxes of .22 Magnum bullets, totaling 100 rounds.  
  


_ “A low-recoil, light-weight, semi-auto pistol with a capacity o' 30 rounds (Tempest's jaw dropped at 30 rounds)_ _. A good choice. Ammo fer it won’t be hard to find either. If I didn’t have more than one o' ‘em I wouldn’t give it up.”  
  
_

_ “Nice, anything I should know?”  
  
_

The man paused for a moment and asked,  
  


_ “Have ya ever been shootin' before?”  
  
_

_ “Once, maybe? Tempest might’ve taken me, I’m not sure.”  
  
_

He went over to a shelf and grabbed one more 50-round box of .22 Magnum ammunition and handed it to Luna.  
  


_ “Practice. That ones on the house.”  
  
_

Luna looked embarrassed, but thanked him and attached the holster to her hip and began loading the magazines with my help. While I showed her how to load them, I nodded to Tempest.  
  


_ “Tempest, go on and pick something out, as long as we can afford it.”  
  
_

_ “Way ahead of you. I was already planning on taking that shotgun with the pistol grip.”  
  
_

_ “I’m afraid I can't part with my Benelli M4, sorry. It’s too nice of a gun, and it’s intimidatin’.”  
  
_

_ “That’s a damn shame. How about that lever-action rifle over there? Mind if I take a look?  
  
_

_ “Not at all. It’s actually a Henry HO18-410 lever-action **shotgun**, the 24-inch barrel model. A very nice and under-appreciated gun.  
  
_

Tempest shouldered the gun, and pumped the lever a few times.  
  


_ “A lever-action _ ** _shotgun_**_?__ I like it, but what are the chances of jamming and how hard is it to clean?”  
  
_

_ “Jammin’ ‘ll only happen if you lever it too fast, and even if you did, ye could just lever it again. Cleanin’ shouldn’t be much of a challenge either, if ye have the proper tools to clean it with. It’d be hard to get dirty, anyways. Oh, I should mention, it’s a tube-fed load.”  
  
_

_ “Wait, really? My god, this gun is a wet dream, minus the slow reload. Okay, so what do you think would be worth this, a cleaning kit for each of us and a few boxes of shells?”  
  
_

_ “I suppose I kin give all that to ya fer one of the sleeping bags. A comfy place ta sleep can be all the difference.”  
  
_

_ “Alright that sounds good if uh… uh, Hope, is this alright with you?”  
  
_

I looked over and replied, _ “It’s a nice sleeping bag, is that shotgun worth it?”  
  
_

_ “The tool is as good as it’s user. The only difference is that the tool is really nice.”  
  
_

I finished showing Luna how to load the magazines, and gave my full attention to them now.  
  


_ “Alright, I suppose we can give you the sleeping bag, Uhhh…”  
  
_

_ “Matthew. Ye can call me Matt.”  
  
_

_ “Matt. Now, I’ve been thinking carefully about it, but do you happen to have one of those AR-15 rifles?”  
  
_

_ “Ah. I ‘ave about 5 of ‘em, so I won’t ask much fer one o' ‘em. They use both 223 Remington and 5.56 NATO rounds, so ya got a few more options. They kin be customized somewhat easily too, and ye can even make a rifle that meets yer needs and yer needs only.”  
  
_

_ “Sounds nice, I didn’t think they were _ ** _that _ ** _ good.”  
  
_

Tempest looked at me and said, ‘Seriously?’ and shook her head.  
  


_ “I took you out shooting once and you can shoot ridiculously well, yet you don’t know how to hold a gun properly and you don’t know much about guns either?! That’s either natural talent you have there, or it was a god-given one-time miracle.”  
  
_

_ “Then halle-fuckin-lujah, because I doubt the natural talent theory.” _

My ability to shoot well was true, she had taken me shooting and I was as good a shot as she was, despite having no past practice.

_ “Well, I guess an AR-15 would be a decent choice for you, if you can build one that suits you.” _

Matt’s eyes lit up and he got excited. He looked over at me and said, 

_ “I could build it for ya! I got some parts, but you’d have to stay the night. While yer here, I kin show ye a few things about taking care of ‘em.” _

I looked over to Tempest and Luna and asked,

_ “What do you guys think? We really could use some rest, and we could learn something from it.” _

Matt added, _ “And you’d keep me company! It’s quiet out here, I’d like it.” _

Luna and Tempest thought about it, and agreed. We got our bikes inside and safe, set up our sleeping bags and then I (Luna and Tempest were heating up a couple cans of Chef Boyardee) went to the back room where Matt was getting things on the table. I brought my list, because nothing comes without a price.

_ “Ah, ya ready?” _

_ “Sure, but I have no clue what I’m doing.” _

_ “That’s alright, I’ll walk ya through it.” _

As Matt and I went through the different parts, he told me what each would change about the gun and how each part functions. He was really patient and also didn’t ask much in exchange. He seemed to be enjoying it, and I noticed that he had many parts all around the room. I found out he loves building guns, and that the shop was passed on from his dad. (Really cool guy, I hope he’s doing alright.) After about 2 and a half hours of teaching me about AR-15s, I could’ve considered myself a competent AR owner (If I had a steel trap of a brain.). I walked out of the back room with Matt showing them my new rifle. Tempest’s eyes bugged out at the sight of it, and Luna thought it looked really cool. Tempest and Matt went off on a tangent talking about the parts used, while I grabbed a few things in exchange for the parts. He mainly wanted some of our bartering items to do more trading with, but I had to give up one of the mini solar panels, which was worth it. My rifle had a medium-length barrel, a light-weight aluminum receiver, an adjustable stock, a sling and a 3x red dot sight. After a bit of bartering, I ‘paid’ for my gun and also got Luna a marksman sight for her bow along with it. Tempest wanted to get more ammunition because she wasn’t sure when she would be able to find more for any of us. After (even more) bartering, we got a few more boxes for Izzy and I (Including some more .22 LR). Matt handed us one more box extra and told us to follow him. He took us all back to a large door and let us inside.  
  


_ “Surprise! I have an indoor shootin’ range!”  
  
_

Tempest and Luna got excited, and I was looking forward to testing out my new gun. He got Luna set up with a close target (A mere 15 feet away) and Tempest with one that was farther (30 feet). I was set up with a target 30 feet away, and Matt had a smirk on his face.  
  


_ “Tempest there said you shot just as well as her. Let’s see just how far y’alls accuracy lasts.”  
  
_

_ “I haven’t even loaded my magazines yet, so might wanna help Luna get to shooting first.”  
  
_

I loaded my magazines and Matt was teaching Luna how to shoot. He had already taught her the basic safety rules, (which Leila would follow religiously) and she popped off the first few shots. After Matt got her going, Leila was popping off round after round into random spots on the body of the target. Matt moved it 25 feet away and walked over to Tempest and I.  
  


_ “I wanna see you two face off. Natural talent, versus experienced shooter. I will slowly increase the distance, and yes I know that Tempest has a shotgun, but it has a long enough barrel to be pretty accurate at a medium distance. On my go!”  
  
_

Tempest and I readied our guns and on his mark, began shooting. As he increased the distance, our shots got sloppier, but were still hitting their mark. It was at 45 feet that I missed, and Tempest had to load more shells.  
  


_ “I gotta say, I’m impressed. How do you like the guns?”  
  
_

Tempest spoke first, saying, _ “The fact that it’s a .410 helps with noise and recoil. The lever is smooth, and the trigger breaks quite nicely. I would say the only thing I don’t like about it is the fact that it’s somewhat slow to reload, but the gun will stay much cleaner.”  
  
_

_ “Good, good. What ‘bout you, Hope?”  
  
_

_ “I like it, the recoil isn’t too bad, the sight is really nice, it’s not too heavy, and my stock is comfortable.”  
  
_

_ “Good. Now, it's late and y'all have a bit of a journey ahead of ya, so I suppose I should let you sleep. I’m real happy to have something comfier to sleep in, so nice doin’ business with ya.”  
  
_

_ “The same to you.”  
  
_

After Luna emptied her practice box, she and I loaded our magazines, ate and went to sleep. We needed it, as we had a lot of road ahead of us.  
  


** _Day 6 - 9:00 AM_  
  
**

We woke up inside the shop to find it was quiet, so we gave ourselves time to wake up and eat some breakfast (Which consisted of canned fruit, mostly.). After we had eaten, we were discussing plans on what roads we were going to take when Matt came out of the back room looking groggy.  
  


_ “Well, I s’pose you’re leaving today, am I wrong?”  
  
_

I replied to Matt, saying, _ “Yes sir, we are. We have a lot of road to cover ahead of us.”  
  
_

_ “I figured as much. Well, don’t leave without saying goodbye, I’m going to clean myself up some.”  
  
_

Matt returned to the back room, and closed the door. We started getting our stuff together, organizing it carefully along with the rest, and where it would be easily reached. We were about to finish getting geared up when Matt came back out with his shotgun in the crook of his arm, like he did when we met him.  
  


_ “‘Bout ready?”  
  
_

We all nodded and (Once we finished) started heading out the door and saying our goodbyes, and got onto the bikes once again. With our new armory, I felt much more confident in our chances out there.  
  


_ “Thanks fer the company, and I hope y’all have safe travels. I won’t forget it.”  
  
_

_ “Thanks for being friendly in what soon may become desperate times. Stay safe, Matt!”  
  
_

We all said our final goodbyes (For the third time) and pedaled out the gate. It was on the road again, waiting till we came across the next town.  
  
  
** _Day 6 - 6:00 PM_  
  
**

After biking for several hours (with breaks of course, we are human), we stopped just outside Waco, in Woodway, and looked for a suitable house to squat in. I had Luna stay with the bikes while Tempest and I went through the outskirts of the town, which was mostly suburbs and small shops. We were both tired, so we didn’t go far. We found an empty house, with some food that was left behind on the shelves and in the fridge (Power was still on) and got our stuff inside. We had gone far enough to see that there was an JEB, a couple pharmacies, an ER and a Wolmart down the road, so we planned to do some shopping in the morning.  
  


_ “Ok, so I’ll hit the Wolmart, Tempest, you hit the ER and see if you can find anything good, and Leila you can hit the JEB. Sound good?”  
  
_

They both agreed to it, but Luna questioned why she was going alone.  
  


_ “Normally, Tempest and I stick together. Is it because I have a gun now, or because you think I’m ready, or both?”  
  
_

_ “Because I think you can handle yourself a bit better now and part of it is because you have a gun that you can handle. By the way, about your bow, I think this town has an archery shop around here if you want our help looting one. I saw an ad for one outside while I was looking around with Tempest.”  
  
_

_ “Sweet, I would love to see if there are some better arrows or something. I am a pretty good shot with a bow, so I could quietly kill any zombie in our paths like a ninja!"  
  
_

_“Sure, sure. You know, suppressors would be nice, but I didn’t even see one at Matt’s shop. Where do you even get those things?”   
  
_

Tempest jumped at the opportunity to speak of guns, saying, _ “You can get them at gun shops and gunsmiths if they carry them, but they aren’t super common.”  
  
_

_ “Cool, but I say we just avoid messing with them until then. Noise fucks with them, right?”  
  
_

_ “Right. Kill them only if we need to.”  
  
_

Luna interrupted us, saying, _ “We can’t even think about killing things or looting or whatever the fuck without sleep, so let’s just get to bed.”  
  
_

Tempest saw this as her moment to return the favor, talking to me quietly, but loud enough for Luna to hear.  
  


_ “I agree, we could all use some beauty sleep, especially her.”  
  
_

Luna turned around, stormed back to Tempest looking like a live grenade about to explode and planted the fattest kiss she could on Tempest’s lips. She then stormed away, saying good night and leaving Tempest lost for words.  
  


“I- did she- what the fu-"  
  


_"Shut up, you liked that, sudden or not!” _ Luna called from her room. _ “Now get in here, you adorable bean!”  
  
_

Tempest got up, said good night, and went to the room to join Luna. I tried my data on my phone to see if I could get google maps to work, and (somehow) it worked. I scrolled around the town we were in and found several other stores that could be of use to us. House Depot, Acadomie, 2 archery shops, a gun store…  
  
  
I’m pretty sure I passed out on the table.

** _ Day 7 - 10:00 AM _  
  
**

We had all awaken and eaten, and were discussing plans for today's ‘shopping’ runs, when I told them about the other stores and showed them screenshots. We had finished up the discussion and gotten empty backpacks (80L, 60L, 60L) onto our backs, said ‘see you later’ to each other. As Tempest went into the ER and I went down the road to the Wolmart, Luna stood there for a moment as if to take in everything, and then walked out of view to go to the JEB. I walked down my road, and looking around, it was peaceful, but I began to see corpses here and there. Some torn apart, mangled and unrecognizable. I started feeling sick, and tried to drive the thought out of my head, but the images were still there haunting me. I continued walking to the Wolmart and upon reaching the parking lot, I saw zombies shuffling around, scattered throughout the lot. I walked around some of them, and killed a few with a strong swing of my machete. When my machete split their skulls, you could clearly hear the cracking, the squishing of the brain, the blood was dried inside their bodies, and it didn't splatter everywhere like they did in the movies. The flesh tore like a stretchy leather, and looked a sickly light grey or pale on most of them. There were more inside, some of them children, and the place looked like hell. Anything from small blood splatters to gore were scattered in aisles, and empty shelves in some areas. The smell of death and rotten meat was in the air, as the place had lost power. I was really feeling sick now, but I covered my face with my shirt and kept going. I had to kill a couple more to get to the section I was looking for, Emergency Preparedness. It was almost totally empty, and the Sports and Outdoors section was empty of guns and most of the ammunition. I looked around at the shelves and found 2 boxes of .22 Magnum and a few boxes of .22 LR, but found no .223 Winchester. I went to the Airsoft/BB gun section, and sure enough, found some of those Daisy BB guns. I took one out of its box and some BBs for it and attached it to my bag, as we could use it for quietly hunting birds, squirrels and maybe rabbits. I went to the accessories section and found a multi tool, a couple of hunting knives, a couple flashlight attachments, and 2 stock shotgun shell holders. Behind me in the same section, I saw a couple bows, and a rack of arrows. I grabbed up all 24 arrows and the 7 packs of the deadliest looking arrowheads that were left. Luna knew more about this stuff, but I hoped she would like it. There were other things, but I didn’t want to waste more room on things we didn’t need. I went to the fishing section and (not really knowing much about fishing) found there was still a good bit left. I grabbed up a couple rods, reels, some random boxes of string, a box of assorted hooks, a tackle box, and (fake) bait of all sizes and shapes and put them in the tackle box. I went to the camping section next and found it mostly picked clean. I noticed something while I was back there, the door to the employees only area. I went inside, and saw huge shelves with boxes and crates galore, all filled with who knows what. I thought about looking into a few when I heard the voices of two men down the way. The first man looked at the other and said:  
  


_ “You know, we could get Jeff to drive the forklift for us and we could make a wall of crates. It wouldn’t take too long either.”  
  
_

_ “You’re right, good idea. But I would like to see what’s in them first. We can get the rest of the guys to help us open them, I bet there’s tons of good stuff here.”  
  
_

_ “I'm sure of it. See, I have a vision. With at least our state going to shit and quite quickly, we could get an early start on making a community. There’s enough for trading, we have shelves for makeshift walls to make bedroom like areas and such, and it’s a defensible location. I’ve always dreamed of doing something like this one day. Just under better circumstances.”  
  
_

I was thinking about how I liked their ideas for a place like this, when I felt a sneeze coming on. I did my best to hold it in, but to no avail. I was barely able to muffle the noise.  
  


_ “Save the dreams for now, bigshot. I thought I heard something.”  
  
_

_ “Oh yeah? Like what? Everyone left town except for us.”  
  
_

_ “One of those zombies, maybe? I don’t know, it sounded like shuffling.”  
  
_

I turned around to leave and pushed on the door open without checking behind it, and hit something on the ground and made a clanging sound.  
  


_ “Yep, I just heard a can or something. C’mon, lets go, this is where the fun begins...”  
  
_

Great. They had guns, and I wasn’t looking to get shot. I got away from the door and started running through aisles, looking for the exit, and I heard their footsteps pounding on the floor not too far behind me. I turned to look behind me and saw them run past the aisle I had turned into. I kept going, looking for the exit, but in my state of panic I felt like I was lost in a maze. I got to one of the main aisles and went towards what I figured was the front, and started running again as quietly as I could. As I reached the door, I heard 2 shots and heard a whizzing noise go by my shoulder and hit the wall in front of me. My heart was going 200 miles an hour and I didn’t stop for anything, shoving zombies as I passed. They kept shooting at me, bullets whizzing by at incredible speeds. It's a miracle I didn’t get hit, but damn was it close. I got out of the parking lot and kept running to our temporary home, and when I made it, I locked the doors and sat in front of it. I checked my gun to see if it was fully loaded, and took a spot around the hallway corner. I didn’t move for maybe 20 minutes, my heart racing. They must have given up, because they didn’t come to the door or anything. I slid down the wall, breathing slowly now, and thought about what the hell had happened. While I was resting, I looked at my gun and I asked myself: 'Can I kill someone if I have to?'. One of the big questions, and I shook it off and decided that I would cross that bridge when I came to it. I took a look at my list and added what I had gotten to it. I didn’t dare go outside until Tempest came back. When she did, Tempest and I went over what we had found, and reorganized a few things. When Luna was late we started worrying about her, wondering what had happened or if she had gone to an archery shop in town. We waited for her for about 45 minutes or so, when she walked into the door, arm over the shoulder of some guy, and her leg bandaged. Tempest started panicking over her leg and I had my gun shouldered and aimed at the man. He put his hands up and simply said,  
  


_ “Chill out, and ask Luna about me. She told me to just keep my mouth shut when we got here.”  
  
_

The man was tall, broad shouldered, and somewhat slim. He had a smooth voice that was neither high-pitched or deep. Brown-haired, freckles on his cheeks and nose, with brown eyes. He was wearing some dark clothing, and it looked like heavy duty combat gear combined with scrubs or something, and also had a bright red backpack stuffed like a turkey.  
  


_ “Sounds about right, Luna, who the hell is this?”  
  
_

Luna looked away from Tempest and at the man, and then looked at me with tired eyes and said,  
  


_ “The man who just saved my life.”_

* * *

**(Luna's POV)  
  
**

As I saw Tempest and Hope split away, going to their hits, I took in how calm it was to not hear cars or people. Just pure quiet, it was bliss until I realized I was losing daylight. I made my way to the JEB and made sure to look out for any zombies. Whether my gun was the quietest or not, I made sure to bring my bow, and keep it ready. When I reached the parking lot, I began smelling something awful, and I discovered that was the smell of death. I didn’t think I could ignore it at all until I started worrying about the scattered zombies. I didn’t have any good arrowheads, so I had to aim carefully for the base of their skull while they were turned around or aim for their temple. I managed to kill a few with the arrows, but others just got pissed off and I had to split their skulls with the machete. It was sickening, seeing it happen, just watching their skulls crunch, coagulated blood fleck out in crumbs, the flesh tearing like leather- (Hope stopped her and told her that they knew full and well what it was like.). Anyways, I killed the few in my way, and went inside to find that the place looked like a war-zone. Blood was splattered on some of the walls, the floor, and on shelves. I saw corpses littering the place, and a couple zombies were still eating one. I tried my best to ignore the nausea building up, and went around them to see if I could scrounge up some leftovers. As I went through the aisles (which most of them were picked clean) I found a few worthwhile things. Some canned food, maybe for us about a days worth. A couple bags of beans, which could last maybe 2 days. 4 bags of chocolate chips, which I knew Hope would go crazy for trading over. I found a ton of meat left over, (Which we should get out of my bag and cook, before it spoils.) and only took enough for tonight, because of spoilage. I got some more pads, by the way, I’m surprised that there were any left. (*_Hope begins scrambling for the bag* _) I got some toilet paper, because yes. And last but not least, I got some coffee. I found a few cans left and snatched them up, despite them being my second least favorite brand. I double checked the store for anything else I could find and walked out. Seeing as I had more room, and more time, I went to Walgreens nearby to scrounge up some medicine or something, only to find it was locked down with shutters. I tried to tic-tac up the wall and get to the window, but I failed and nearly hurt myself. I decided to go to the CVS across the way, and found it was open. I walked in and found the place a mess. No blood or anything, thankfully, but it looked like a mob had been through here. Amongst the ruin I found some painkillers, more Ibuprofen, some cough syrup, and I saw a bunch of crushed boxes I didn’t recognize. I found some leftover bags of chips, jerky, and candy under one of the shelves, but made a bit of noise while I was doing so. I ended up tripping on a shelf while walking to the pharmacy area and knocked another on top of me, which made a ton of noise and had me pinned. I tried to move it, but it only dug into my leg the more I tried, so I was sitting there bleeding and hoping I could get it off of me or you guys would come and find me. After about 5 minutes, a zombie walks in and starts shuffling around, and my heart was racing. I tried to stay dead quiet and not move an inch but it must have been able to smell me or my blood, because even though the shelves hid a good bit of me, it came right towards me and was getting faster. I knew I had to get freed quick, so I started lifting it up, but I dropped it onto my leg and basically stabbed myself deeper. I yelped in pain and the zombie came towards me, and I tried reaching for my gun, but it was under the shelf. So I did the only thing I could do at that moment.

I screamed bloody murder and hoped someone heard it.

The zombie started getting too close for comfort and I kept pushing it away, the shelf digging deeper into my leg as it leaned on it for support. I thought I was going to die when I missed its shoulder trying to shove it, as it had opened its mouth and started going for my arm. I managed to keep it away from my arm just for a few seconds longer, and then its head snapped to the right and it flew to the floor. I must have passed out, because the next thing I knew, I woke up in the back of the Pharmacy, leg bandaged up and pants bloody. I look over to my left to see this guy sitting criss-cross, eyes closed, eating a box of Cheez-Its like nothing was wrong. The door had some kind of fancy bar on it, and he had a bloody ball peen hammer next to him along with a bright red bag. He noticed I was awake, put the box down and said,

_ “Oh look, you live. How you feelin’?” _

_ “What the fuck just happened?” _   
  


_ “Well I kiiiinda sorta heard you screaming like hell so I booked it here as fast as I could. I beat the hell out of the fucker trying to munch on your face, and picked the shelf up off of you. Your leg was pretty nasty looking, so you better thank christ that I’m the one who heard you, and that I had what I needed. That, and you passed out, so I didn’t have to waste painkillers._

He then patted his bright red bag with a patch saying: ‘F. Kershaw’s T.R.M.B.’ which I had no clue what it stood for. If it had nothing but medical supplies in it, I swear he could've had the cure to cancer. (I mean, look at it! It’s _ stuffed!)_

_ “Yeah, about that, how did you manage to fix up my leg?” _

_ “Perhaps we should introduce ourselves first. I’ll start. Felix Kershaw, Paramedic, Trauma Specialist, and certified harmicist.” _

_ “Harmicist?” _

_ “You’ll know what I mean when you see the remains of the zombie that was attacking you.” _

_ “Oh. Wait. So... you got your hands covered in blood from a zombie and my leg and then proceeded to drag me back here and eat a box of motherfucking Cheez-Its?” _

_ “Well, yes and no. I carried you back here, and second, I was wearing gloves. You see some shit as a Paramedic, so it honestly wasn’t much. And about the Cheez-Its, of-fucking-course! Anytime is Cheez-It time, and you’d best learn that quick.” _

_ “Oh dear lord help me.” _

_ “Pretty sure he just did, making sure I was here.” _

_ “No, I mean about the Paramedic who will stop at nothing to eat Cheez-Its.” _

_ “Fair enough.” _

He then proceeded to finish his Cheez-Its (Didn’t share any with me, the jerk.) and help me hobble back here. And that’s the end of it, with some small details missing.

* * *

**(Back in the present…)**

I looked up from the floor and checked the laptop to see if it’s still recording, and it was. I then looked at Hope and said,

_ “So that’s where your friend Felix comes in, I see now. So without him, Luna could have died, am I wrong?” _

_ “Nope, she probably would have died. I swear, her guardian angel was pulling some strings there, and hard.” _

_ “Well, how do you think they're doing now? You think they made it to Tempest's parent's land yet?” _

_ “.....is that what this is about?” _

_ “What? No, I was ju-” _

_ “You might have caught me, but no way in hell will I sell them out. Ever. Fuck you.” _

_ “I am trying to collect information on how you yourself think it’s progressing out there, it was just a question. Please calm down.” _

_ “No, go fuck yourself. And my friends would never leave me behind. Remember that. You can talk to me tomorrow, until then, go to hell."_

  
I walked out of the room, and down the hall to the records room. I left an SD card in a small box on one of the shelves and grabbed a new one and put it in the laptop. I left the laptop on my desk and walked out to go to the employee’s living quarters for bed.  
  


_ “So far, so good. I just need to let her tell the story, and I can find out where they deviated to. I must find them, we can keep them safe from what’s out there. We can, I know it.” _

I laid down in bed after brushing my teeth, and thought about today’s progress, and was satisfied for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it, please leave kudos if you did. Seeing that number go up makes me want to do this more because I know people actually liked it. Anonymous commenting is enabled, so please leave feedback you have on it! Wish me luck on chapter 3, because (god dammit) I know my friends at the very least will want it.
> 
> Everyone in WHR, TH is based off of one of my friends (minus Hope, totally original) so thanks to them for letting me put them in here.


	3. The Doctor is In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear god, I forgot to add the notes again so lemme just-
> 
> So, this took way too long to write, and I apologize for that. I've been really discouraged, but occasionally I was able to 'fix' chapters one and two, so the story is set the way it should've been in the first place. I am working on chapter four, but I can't give an exact date, it's basically whenever I can get some work done on it. Here's chapter 3 in the meantime, I hope you enjoy it. It's only gonna get better from here.

I walked down the hall, laptop and microphone in hand and reached Hope’s room. I knocked on the door and waited for a response.

_ “Hello? It’s me, could we continue our recording?” _

There was a shuffling type of noise and a short pause before she spoke.

_ “Sure, but you know what I said last night, and you’d better remember it. Come in.” _

I entered the room and saw Hope laying on her bed, with one leg crossing the other. She was reading a mystery book I was rather fond of, called ‘Cold Case’. After about 30 seconds, she put a bookmark in it and set it down. She then sat up on her bed, picked up her notebook, and gestured to the chair across from her. I sat down, set up my laptop and microphone and hit ‘record’.

_ “I think I’ll remind you. I’ll tell you what happened, under one condition. You don’t ever, EVER. Ask about where they are.” _

Damn, I’m going to have to be much more subtle about this.

_ “That’s fine, Hope. So we left off where Luna had told you about her run-in with Felix and the infected?” _

_ “Zombies, and yeah, I’ll start from there.” _

**Chapter 3: The Doctor Is In**

** _Day 7 - 8:00 PM_ **

I started to put my gun down, but not my guard.

_ “You don’t have anything other than that hammer, right? _

He looked at me with a confused face and said,

_ “I just saved a complete stranger’s life, and you think I’m gonna hurt you?” _

_ “I have no clue who you are as a person, so yeah, I’m gonna be suspicious.” _

Luna interjected before I started an argument with him.

_ “Hope, calm down. He’s a good guy, I swear.” _

_ “And how do you know that?” _

_ “Oh, I don’t know, the fact that he nearly got bitten twice taking me here and didn’t ditch me. Or maybe the fact that he didn’t take advantage of me. Maybe because he didn’t let me die and take my stuff, in fact, he used some of his valuable medical supplies to help me out. Sounds like a really bad guy, doesn’t he?” _

I felt like I had been punched in the gut. It was all true, but I didn’t know if he did that just to get to us, like how you use a small fish to catch a bigger one. The whole time we were talking, Felix just held his hands up, looking tired and bored as he waited for us to finish.

_ “Fine. He takes the couch, and we go on watches tonight, I’ll take the first.” _

_ “If you want me to leave, I can leave.” _

_ “We’ll discuss your being here in the morning until then, let’s get some sleep.” _

We all got into our sleeping clothes, (Minus Felix, his tactical scrubs were all he had.) and Luna and Tempest went into their room. I sat in a chair with my gun and Felix laid down on the couch to go to sleep. After about 15 minutes of sitting in the chair, bored out of my skull, Felix rolled over and sat up on the couch.

_ “Are you usually this untrusting of people, or is it just me?” _

_ “Perhaps it’s because of the fact that everyone is in a sort of ‘every man for himself’ state of mind right now?” _

_ “Ok, I get that, but seriously, I just saved your friend’s life. Can you consider that?” _

_ “I have, but what part of ‘I can’t trust you yet’ don’t you understand?” _

_ “I don’t know. But maybe the fact that you guys aren’t dead in the morning will show you that I’m not a terrible person. G’night.” _

_ “Night.” _

After the mini-chat between Felix and I, I got comfortable in the chair and waited until fatigue took Felix, and myself not very long after.

** _Day 8 - 11:00 AM_ **

I woke to a yelp and a clanging noise, jumped up out of the chair and ran to the kitchen, gun at my side. I half yelled, half slurred something along the lines of, _ ‘On the floor, fucker’ _ and shouldered my gun. I was still groggy and my vision was still blurry, so all I saw were 3 figures with their hands up. After a pause, Luna’s voice made me come to my senses.

_ “Uh… Hope? You good? Could you maybe put the gun down?” _

I realized there was no fear or panic in her voice whatsoever, I blinked a few times to clear my vision further, and upon gaining my vision I saw a pan with some eggs on the floor. I looked at them and noticed Tempest’s eyes were teary and Felix was holding a damp rag, and that all of them looked confused.

_ “Wait. What’s going on?” _

_ “I burned my hand and knocked the pan over when I jerked my hand away, now can you put the fucking gun down?” _

I had been pointing the gun at Felix the whole time. I put it down, told them it was a simple misunderstanding, and helped them clean up. My heart was still racing and my limbs were shaky with adrenaline, but I stayed calm enough to finish the job. After some more eggs were made, (The last in the carton) we all sat down and tried to have a somewhat normal morning. Once we had finished, we cleared the plates and laid out what we knew about the Walgrams Luna had tried to hit. Felix _ had _ indeed saved Luna’s life, and he needed to restock a few things in his bag.

_ “Ok, I know that not all of what you need will be there, but it’s something. I’ll help you hit the place while Tempest stays here and takes care of Luna.” _

Upon hearing this, Luna got an annoyed look on her face and said, _ “I’m not completely helpless, you know.” _

_ “You can’t walk without holding onto something, I saw you in the kitchen moving around earlier.” _

_ “Fuckin’ fiiiiiiine, but I don’t need someone to stay with me. Tempest would be more help going with you guys.” _

Tempest immediately looked at her, mouthed ‘shut up’ and turned to me.

_ “No, no, no, you guys got this. It’s nothing big, right?” _

_ “Right, nothing big. Just help out and don’t let her move much. We’ll get going in a sec, Felix.” _

_ “No problemo, mi amigo.” _

_ “Shut it.” _

We got our stuff ready for the run, and I made sure our route was correct. Once we were ready, we headed out the door. Luna let Felix borrow her bike since she wouldn’t be using it for a day or so. During the ride, Felix took the opportunity to have a chat.

_ “Surprise, surprise. None of you magically died in your sleep. Believe me yet?” _

_ “Not much more than last night, but you can keep trying all you want.” _

I remembered something I meant to ask him last night, and I figured now was as good a time as any.

_ “Why is it you want me to trust you so much? Not like you plan on knowing us for long.” _

_ “Really? Because you don’t have any kind of doctor and you’re headed north from what Luna told me. I’m going north to see if my parents are still alive. So I figured on asking you if I could tag along for the ride sometime today.” _

Luna told him where we’re going?! And did he seriously want in, or is he trying to steal everything we’ve got? I couldn’t tell, but I didn’t want to take the risk.

“We can discuss your staying with us when we get back. Until then, don’t even think about it.”

We rode the rest of the way to the Walgrams in silence. When we got there, we saw the front door was shuttered and the upper windows could not be opened.

_ "Damnit. Felix, let's go around back, maybe there's another door to try." _

_ "Mam, yes mam." _

We went around to the back and did find a door, but it was locked. Felix got a crowbar off the side of my bag and after a few minutes of struggling and cursing under his breath, he was able to force the door enough to open it with a loud creak. Felix was almost out of breath from the effort, but recovered much faster than I've seen anyone. We took a look around and found the store to be almost completely untouched, we must have been the first ones there since it had been locked up.

_ "Well, go ahead and grab what you need, I'm gonna grab a few things." _

_ "Nah, you grab your few things and I'll watch the door." _

_ "You just remember I have a gun and we'll be fine." _

I grabbed some medicines and other things we needed, and glanced at Felix when I could. When I had gotten everything I needed, I called Felix to swap out. He started grabbing what he needed, but at least 7 zombies came around the corner and started moving towards the door. I closed it so there was only a crack to see out of, and waited for them to pass. I signaled to Felix to come over and keep quiet, and I let him take a look. He did the same as I did and kept silent. As they got closer to the door, my heart was picking up in speed, I was sweating bullets, and I began to tremble. I looked at Felix and saw he was feeling the same thing, but he wasn't shaking in fear. He was ready with his hammer, and he had a look in his eyes that made him seem fearless. The zombies got so close to the door and had us on the sharpest edge. They passed the door, and my chest was aching. I realised I had been holding my breath, and took a good few lung-fulls of air. 3 of the zombies in the rear of the group stopped and turned around, they must have heard me gasping for air. The other 4 in the group went around the other corner and we prepared for the 3 coming our way. I readied my machete and waited till they got close to the door, and by the time I had braced myself, Felix kicked the door outwards and slammed the zombies with it. He proceeded to beat their heads to mush, wasting not one moment in dispatching them. The other 4 came back around the corner, and he hadn't noticed them yet, so I went out and waited for each one to come at me. The first one shuffled towards me, and I kicked it's leg to the side. It went down hard, and I took the opportunity to stomp it's head in with my boot. It's skull caved in and my foot was stuck in it. The sharp edges of bone in it's skull had me caught in a literal death trap, and I couldn't move away from the next zombie approaching. I swung hard at its neck, severing most of its neck but not all the way through its spinal cord. I yanked the machete out, knocking the zombie to the ground in the process, and I swung again. It's spine was then severed, but the next zombie was too close for comfort. I shoved it away and my boot finally freed itself. I waited for it to come back at me, and then I used its own momentum against it to throw it to the ground, and Felix beat its head like he did to the others. Felix kicked the other one down and then jumped on its head. Both of us now out of breath, we leaned against the wall and chuckled a little.

_ "You're pretty damn good with that little hammer. How can something so small do so much?" _

_ "The tool is only as good as it’s user. Plus it’s light, so I can swing it as hard as I want as fast as I want.” _

_ “Fair enough, but why do you have to beat them so brutally?” _

_ “To make sure that the dead stay dead. Duh.” _

_ “Ok then, go finish getting your stuff.” _

Felix finished getting what he needed, and we rode back to the house.

** _Day 8 - 4:00 PM_ **

There was still daylight, and we sat down to discuss Felix’s want to ride with us.

_ “Hope, I don’t see why not, he saved Luna’s life and seems to be pretty damn friendly. I may not fully trust him yet, but I say yeah, let him come with us.” _

_ “And a yes from me, he saved my ass and seems pretty genuine to me.” _

_ “Well look, I barely trust him, but we’re probably going to need a doctor on the way. I’m alright with it, but how is he going to ride with us? We don’t have transportation for him, and he doesn’t have his own.” _

_ “You know I can hear you guys from in here, right?” _

I had to lock him in a closet.

_ “Forget it, you might as well come out. You can stay, but we’ve got one problem.” _

Felix stepped out of the closet and came over to the table.

_ “I know what problem it is, so how about a car?” _

Luna looked at Felix with the intention to kill in her eyes.

_ “I’m not ditching my children for a 4 wheeled gas-gobbling monster. Period.” _

_ “Bike racks exist, you know.” _

He has a point, we can just get our hands on a bike rack and drive until the gas runs out. It would be a portable home. However, there was a problem.

_ “Alright, a car is viable if we can find one with the keys in it and gas. Plus, space is going to be an issue. I don’t like leaving useful things behind.” _

_ “I’m a paramedic, what kinda car do you think I’ve had in mind?” _

Oh.

_ “You don’t happen to mean you have access to ambulances, do you?” _

_ “I might.” _

_ “Only things I’m worried about are gas and how bulky those things are. If the road is blocked, how are going to squeeze an ambulance through the cars or whatever might be in the way?” _

_ “We can cross that bridge when we get to it. Until then, it will be an enormous help. We can carry all of our stuff and your bikes if we arrange it right.” _

_ “Alright, I’m on board, if you have a plan.” _

** _Day 8 - 8:00 PM_ **

The plan was easier said than done, but it seemed simple enough. Get to the hospital, find a working ambulance and the keys for it, open the gates, and drive home. However, we had to account for the zombies that may be in the way, the possibility of there being no ambulances, the keys being locked up, etc. So, we figured we would do it first thing in the morning, at dawn. Luna loved the arrowheads I had gotten, she told me that they were barbed piercing arrowheads. She also told me she had an idea, if we had some string. I gave it to her and then went to go catalog everything and make sure we didn’t need to restock on anything.

** _Day 9 - 6:00 AM_ **

I sharpened my machete and got a smaller backpack for the run. Luna’s leg was feeling alright, so she thought she would come along, donning her hoodie, her biking bag, bow and quiver. Tempest didn’t want to stay at the house alone, so we hid everything inside the house and she double checked her shotgun and my AR. Felix readied his pack and waited for us to be ready.

_ “Hey Felix, take this. I won’t be using it, I hope.” _

Luna handed Felix her pistol. I was in shock, and then I realized Luna was never comfortable with a gun. She was used to having a string instead of a handle in her hands.

_ “Thanks, I really appreciate it. It’ll be nice if my hammer gets stuck in a skull.” _

_ “You’re probably better with it than I am.” _

_ “Let’s get on with this, guys. We don’t have a whole lot of time before the light comes out.” _

We all left the house and walked to the ER. It was cool out, and very quiet. Not even one cicada chirped.

** _Day 9 - 6:30 AM_ **

We reached the hospital, and hopped the short fence. We followed Felix to the lot, and when we got there, he pointed out the 2 ambulances sitting in the lot. He whispered, quiet as could be.

_ “Great, now we just gotta check them and see if they have the keys.” _

Felix used the FOB in his medical ID to open the gate into the lot and went to check the first ambulance, and found it locked. He checked the second one to find it also locked. He came back, and told us what we had to do.

_ “Ok, so we need to find whoever has one of the Intelligent Keys and take them. They’re either long gone, or they’re here in the hospital. My keys are in my locker in the staff room. So if my keys are gone, we have no choice but to find whoever has the keys.” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “Sounds easier said than done. How do we get to the staff room?” _

_ “Well, it’s down the hall from those doors.” _

He pointed to a large double-door on the side of the lot, under a small roof. We began heading for the door, still on high alert for anything hiding in the dark. The lights in the lot made it hard for us to hide, so we had to hurry to stay out of sight. Once we had moved to the doors, he used his FOB to unlock the door and let us in. We stepped inside and were greeted by the smell of rot and death once more. It was so much worse than in the stores we had each hit, and pulled up our shirts. As we walked down the hall, we began seeing stretchers with rotting bodies on them, dead doctors and nurses, even a couple security staff. I noticed the staff had collapsible batons, and let Felix know. He grabbed one of them and it’s clip off of the guard, and took the other one and handed it to Luna.

_ “You can’t just depend on that bow. Learn how to use that thing well.” _

Felix swung the closed baton and it became a foot-long harbinger of pain. Luna copied him, and nearly hit Tempest in the process.

_ “Watch where you swing that thing, damnit!” _

I took what I could off of them, including a pair of handcuffs (with key), their flashlights, and a couple of bulletproof vests covered in blood. I tossed Tempest and Felix the vests, I kept a flashlight, and put the other one in my bag. I put the handcuffs in my pocket and the key in a smaller pocket. We continued down the hall, and passed body after body in the halls. I was surprised to see only one zombie on the way there, which Felix quickly shut up by swinging his hammer into the zombie’s skull. He left it in the zombie’s head, never to wield it again. We arrived at the staff room, and unlocked the damaged and bloody door. The room was a mess, with the table turned over, a few of the staff’s corpses torn to shreds, pooling blood, and papers littering the floor along with disposable dinnerware. After we had soaked in the horrid scene, Felix made his way over to his locker and unlocked it with a small key. Inside, he found his key to ambulance #197 and signaled to leave the room. We made our way out quietly, not wanting to stay any longer than needed. The hellscape that was once a hospital didn’t seem worth looting anyway. We arrived back at the doors to the lot to find that the FOB detector was smashed. I moved to open the door manually, but Felix shoved me away from the door.

_ “What the fuck, man!? I’m opening the door!” _

_ “Don’t! If it’s opened without the FOB being used, it sets off the fire alarm!” _

Now we had to find a way around, although I didn’t see any doors other than the one here leading to the lot. So we had a decision.

_ “Ok, the way I see it, we can either go through here and hope we’ll make it out and go around, or we can go through the door and run like hell.” _

_ “Hope, I don’t like either of those options. Is there a 3rd option?”, _Luna asked.

_ “No, there isn’t. We have to decide, and quickly, before the sun starts lighting the place up.” _

_ “I vote to run like hell.”, _Tempest said.

_ “Agreed, I vote for run, Hope.” _

_ “Fuck it, sure, let’s do this Hope.” _

We braced ourselves for what was probably about to be the most terrifying thing we could ever experience. I readied my gun, and I gave the signal.

_ “RUN!” _

We busted through the door with all the power we could muster, and we made it to the ambulance in no time flat. Then we all stopped for a second and listened.

_ “Wait, where’s the alarm?” _

_ “I’m not complaining.” _

_ “If there was no alarm, then we just made a ton of noise for no reason at all.” _

_ “Indeed you did, now, drop your weapons.” _

We all froze, and turned around slowly to see two men with rifles trained on us. They were the two thugs I managed to run from in the Wolmart, and 3 of their buddies came as backup.

_ “We don’t wanna hurt you if we don’t have to. Drop your weapons, and your gear while you’re at it.” _

We had our guns trained on them as well, so it was a mexican standoff. I wondered if there was some way out of this, and took a look around. It was still dark out, so if one of us could somehow shoot the nearest light in the lot, we could get away. 

_ "GRENADE!" _

Luna yelled and tossed a grenade at them, pin and lock flying. I was startled, but I fired a few rounds into the light nearby. It broke, and we all made it behind the ambulance. By the time we had gotten behind the ambulance, we should've heard an explosion. But we had heard nothing. I turned to Luna.

_ "Where the fuck did you get a grenade!?" _

_ "I didn't. It was a toy grenade from the JEB I grabbed from the toy section on the way out along with some bouncy balls. I thought we could throw them to distract zombies, but I guess that worked too." _

_ "Well it worked, now what?" _

_ "I don't fucking know, run or shoot?" _

Tempest stopped us and looked me dead in the eyes.

_ "Shoot. We won't get away with the ambulance otherwise. You think you can kill someone?" _

_ "Honestly, no, but they're gonna start trying to shoot us if we don't do something." _

_ "Everyone, ready your weapons and my go, go around the corner and start shooting. Luna, use that bow, pretend they're zombies." _

None of us liked the idea of killing someone, but we didn't have much choice. Our bodies were pumping with adrenaline and we were preparing ourselves for the hell that was about to unleash.

_ Click. Click. Click. _

Safeties off. We rounded the corner of the ambulance, and shot at the first thing that moved. Immediately we heard them screaming in pain, and those who were still standing started shooting back, bullets ricocheting off of the concrete and the ambulance. I felt something shove my shoulder, but no one was in front of me. Then it started burning almost immediately after, and stung like hell. I kept shooting at the silhouettes and muzzle flashes from across the way, until I had to reload. It hurt to move my left arm, but I grabbed another magazine and finished loading the rifle. I blind fired over the hood of the ambulance, and I noticed my ears were starting to ring, sound was becoming quieter. I stopped shooting to conserve ammo and looked at my friends. Tempest was shoving shells into the tube mag of her gun and tearing up, Luna was shooting from under the car, unseen by the enemy. What caught my attention was Felix digging in his arm with a pair of tweezers, bleeding all over his clothes. He appeared to be screaming and tears were streaming down his face, and after a few seconds, pulled a small piece of metal out. He clotted up his wound and wrapped it up tight. He then loaded a fresh magazine into his handgun and got up to shoot. By then, my hearing was starting to come back, but not much. I got up and started shooting as well, this time taking aim and firing. I took a closer look and counted 2 people still shooting at us. I stopped shooting and yelled to them.

_ "Drop your guns and we'll let you live!" _

The gunfire stopped and they came out, hands up.

_ "Please don't kill us! Please! I'm begging you!" _

I shined a flashlight at his face and took a good look. He looked a little younger than me, maybe 21 at most. He was filthy and his hands were bloody.

_ "We're not going to kill you as long as you don't try and kill us! We're peaceful!" _

_ "My friend and I barely met these guys, we didn't know this would happen! Let us go, they can die, we don't care!" _

As bad as they may be, how can you just leave them for dead? I wondered that then, but now I understand. In this world, it's every man for himself, and helping people came with a price.

_ "Let us go!" _

_ "Just leave, take your guns and go." _

They scrambled for their weapons and ran for their lives. I walked over to the men groaning on the ground. I pointed my light at the scene and watched them writhe in pure agony.

_ "I know this is pretty fucked up, but should we mercy kill them or help them?" _

Mercy kill? I could barely keep a straight face, I was about to cry or vomit or maybe both. I don't know if I could bring myself to do it.

_ "The less we think about it the better. And I'm not wasting medicine to help a bunch of bandit scum." _

I was slowly calming down, and the adrenaline was fading. I noticed my arm felt warm and looked down. My arm was soaked in blood and I felt weak. My shoulder was still on fire and I noticed a half-pipe hole in my shoulder.

_ "Oh fuck, Tempest, help me get Hope into the ambulance, she's hurt! Luna, drive!" _

_ “Aren’t you the one who got a bullet in the arm?!” _

Luna was out of it, retrieving her arrows and their gear and casually loading it into the ambulance. Her eyes were glazed over, as if she had put herself in an auto-pilot mode. Felix and Tempest helped me get into the ambulance, and Felix started patching me up. Tempest went over and snapped Luna out of her daze, and then quickly stole the gear off of the now-corpses. Once we were in the car, Tempest drove instead, and Felix finished patching me up. It still hurt like hell, and I lost some blood. The drive was silent, save for the 2 thumps of zombies getting run over on the way out.

** _Day 9 - 10:30 AM_ **

When we got home, we all went somewhere to just cry. We weren't killers, but we mowed down 3 people and left them for dead like it was nothing. We wasted some ammunition, but still had an ok amount left. I was hurt, but not down for the count. Luna's leg was sore, but was healing. Felix's arm was messed up, but he said he would be fine after sometime, it was only a .22 caliber he got shot with. But we had a car now, a big one too. After about an hour or so, we loaded up the car, bikes and all. We realised someone might try and steal it, so we hid it in the neighbor’s empty garage. We mostly spent the day to ourselves, just thinking and sometimes crying some more. When the evening came, we ate in total silence and went to sleep shortly after.

** _Day 10 - 9:00 AM_ **

We ate breakfast, feeling better than yesterday, and planned our route. The tank was just under half, so that gave us about 20 gallons or so. Luna wanted to stop at the archery shop to get some better arrows and arrowheads, as she didn’t want to dig out some of the arrowheads from the bodies. I grabbed a board game and a deck of cards from a closet before we left in case we had to make camp for a couple days. We made it to the archery shop, and I decided to stay in the car. Luna came back for a tool kit, but was able to get inside. It was about 20 minutes or so before she came back out. She told me about what she had gotten, how the place wasn’t totally picked clean. I snuck a peek at her bow, and realized it wasn’t her bow at all. It looked like something out of a movie, and I had no idea what any of it was. Her quiver was new too, and full of arrows. She showed me her arrows and the different arrowheads she had to change out whenever she needed to. Some looked like they could take down a bear, others looked like tiny grappling hooks. Her old bow was strapped to her bag, along with her old quiver, which was also full of arrows. She told me how there were all kinds of different jerky she grabbed too, and some vacuum-packaged cheeses. We said goodbye to Waco, and made our way to Dallas.

** _Day 10 - 11:30 AM_ **

We arrived in Dallas, full of gamey meats and strange cheeses, feeling relaxed. I stretched, and let everyone know that we had arrived. It was just turning afternoon, so we had time to find a place to stay for a bit. We still had a large amount of supplies with us, and didn’t have to worry about for at least a week. We had the car, with enough gas in it to travel a short distance and we were all feeling high in spirit. At this rate, it would be a short trip.

* * *

_ “Alright, that’s enough for today, Hope.” _

_ “Glad you’re satisfied, but my voice isn’t. Hurts like hell.” _

_ “Can’t be the worst you’ve felt though. Get some food, and some rest. We’ll talk tomorrow, I hope?” _

_ “Sure thing, doc.” _

I walked out into the hallway, laptop and microphone in hand. I took the SD card and placed it next to the other one in the records room, and walked off to my own quarters to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like what I've got here so far and wanna see more, please leave a comment or kudos (that stuff encourages and fuels me to write), and don't forget to bookmark it so you can read it when it's updated. Thank you for reading this far, it warms my heart to know that people appreciate my work.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? Comment any feedback you might have and if you liked it or not, all of it is much appreciated.  
Only leave kudos if you wanna see Chapter 2 though, that stuff is only for the really good authors.  
Now, go and have a good day instead of reading my shit. Like, right now.


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